Games, squeezed out of the NES maximum (part 3, final)
End of translation review of the most advanced games for the NES.
First part.
The second part of.
')
In the third version of the gothic thriller Castlevania Konami, a very voluminous game and a pair of own-produced chips were loaded onto the cartridge. This allowed the game to show off beautiful visual effects like rotating objects and simulating perspectives. The graphics have also been reworked and can be called the best graphics for NES in general. Background decorations contain many animated tiles that fill the game with an ominous atmosphere. Some game scenes carry treacherous surprises: automatic scrolling, inbound water, crumbling bridges and crumbling towers will keep the player awake.
Konami squeezed the maximum of graphic possibilities from the NES, allowing us to enjoy such nuances as mud-stained glass, moss on stones, eerie marsh fog, frightening shadows, rotten trees and spectacular flashes of light.
Here the game took a step forward compared with Castlevania 2, where the backgrounds often repeated each other. Enemies and bosses look much better than in the previous parts (although, there they were very good for their time). The animation has become much more beautiful, this time the developers did not manage, as usual, with one or two frames.
The Famicom version (Family Computer — the Japanese version of NES), known as Akumajou Densetsu, used the additional audio channels provided by the VRC6 chip. Several other Konami games also use this chip, but Famicom alone can tap into its sound capabilities.
Watch the gameplay here .
Play Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse online here .
The game looked fabulous and sounded for the time when it saw the light. The 16-bit systems then only took their first steps on the gaming market, and the best compliment that Blaster Master can award is that it looked almost like a 16-bit creation. Exploding enemies are very well developed, and the bosses at the end of the levels are your mammoths. The level of detail in the levels with the side view exceeded any other game of 8-bit generation.
The developers of Sunsoft, like no other, were able to create tile decorations for any NES game. Blaster Master looks like 2 different games in one, thanks to a mixture of levels from side to side and then from above.
One gets the feeling that the character is being thrown into the world of Megamen, then into the world of Zelda. The music, by the way, is also decent, although Blaster Master is inferior in this respect to many games, at least to the same Megaman.
Watch the gameplay here .
Play Blaster Master online here .
SNK is mainly known for its fighting games and the Metal Slug game. But surprisingly, one of the company's first successes was an RPG for NES, which competed with Zelda in terms of gameplay and technical implementation.
Despite its excellent quality, Crystalis has not gained mass popularity, although today it is considered a cult classic among NES fans. Already at that early time, SNK mastered the capabilities of the console in full, and created colorful games that are appreciated not only for beauty, but also for exciting gameplay.
Sprites in the game are well detailed, although relatively small according to the laws of the genre. The animation along the adventure is so good that even The Legend of Zelda looks a bit outdated against its background. In general, the visual environment in the game looks more natural than one would expect from playing on the NES.
Watch the gameplay here .
Play Crystalis online here .
This fun game with a touch of madness was underestimated by the general public. Like many of the later NES games, Little Samson boasts eye-catching graphics and smooth animation. The sprites of the characters themselves are not very impressive, but when the characters move, it becomes clear that the developer worked primarily on the ease of their work, rather than photographic image quality.
But the background scenery features colorful and detailed study. This more than compensates for the not-too-refined character sprites.
Taito keeps the frame rate and sprite refresh rate under control, which is very important for some zabubenny skirmishes.
Watch the gameplay here .
Play Little Samson online here .
Prince of Persia was a revolutionary game when it was released for the Apple II in 1989, but its realistic graphics remained a technical phenomenon at the time of the release of its port for NES. The transferred game looks very similar to the original, but in some locations scrolling is used, since they do not fit entirely on the screen. Nevertheless, the shiver takes from the spectacle of this classic, perfectly working on the old woman NES.
Watch the gameplay here .
Play Prince of Persia online here .
The action of the most advanced racing game on the NES takes place, oddly enough, not on the roadway, but on the snow. Slalom is another of the early NES games that expanded the minds of players and developers. It was released in 1987, and became the first Rare game published for the NES. This was the beginning of a long and fruitful cooperation.
The main key to the successful gameplay in the game was its snow scenery. By simply placing the moving white stripes in the gray area of ​​the roadside, the Rare programmers achieved incredibly natural and speedy gameplay.
Add to this the unevenness of the slope, flagpoles, snowmen, some guys on a sledge and endlessly tearing through other slalomists, and we get pretty tense pokatushki at the output. Although the game uses roughly the same development methods as in other pseudo-3d races of that day, there was practically no such feeling of speed anywhere else as in Slalom.
In addition, it was the first game for the NES, using a split screen for the game together, which in itself was a big step forward.
Watch the gameplay here .
Play Slalom online here .
Looking at the 3-D World Runner gameplay, Sega Megardrive / Genesis fans will note its similarity to Space Harrier. Graphic style and technology are very similar, but here the player is not given to fly - you can only run. Nevertheless, the effects of pseudo-3D are excellent, given that they are made on the NES platform, and were developed in 1987.
But it highlights the game more. It has a 3d-video mode that requires the presence of red and blue 3d-glasses. The mode is activated by pressing the "SELECT", and this detail allows the game to far outpace all competitors in the genre.
Watch the gameplay here .
Play 3-D World Runner online here .
A year after the release of 3D World Runner, a new game called Cosmic Epsilon raised the bar in developing games of its genre. With its release, a clone of Space Harrier for the NES was finally moved from the position of the leader of the genre.
I must say that the colors were not as lively as in the 3D World Runner, nor was the scenery worked out in detail. But the game allowed to fly and engage with enemies in a shootout, and to do it beautifully and effectively.
To add brilliance, several beautiful animated videos were added to the game.
Watch the gameplay here .
Play Cosmic Epsilon online here .
In 1992, a year has passed since the release of Super Nintendo, but this did not stop some developers who want to create games for the ever-young NES. Of course, by that time, most of them had already smelled gunpowder in igode making under Nintendo. Many were able to squeeze every last bit to make their games not look like a dismal shame against the background of the newest 16-bit shares.
Moon Crystal is a horizontal scrolling platformer that stands out for its exquisitely smooth animation. Of course, it does not reach the Prince of Persia rotoscopic animation in this respect, but it still leaves most of the 8-bit platformers far behind. The game also boasts anime-style videos, as if taken from Turbografx-16 games. It is clear that there is a fairly simple animation, but this was not typical of NES games.
Watch the gameplay here .
Play Moon Crystal online here .
Released in 1988 (this is in Japan, in 1989 for the USA), the third part of the cult series for several generations forced us to reconsider ideas about the limitations of NES. It seems that the design engineers at Nintendo did not even realize that it would be possible to create something similar on their console. The game just gushes in both colors and a graphical setting, and in the process sets for the platformers, and for all NES games in general, an incredibly high level with its depth and scope. The game did not leave indifferent, probably, not a single gamer, as she was so stunningly good for the date of her debut. In the USA in 1989, SMB3 even penetrated the script of the film “The Wizard”, and became one of the key elements there.
A great many game levels are scattered throughout the eight worlds of the game, each of which has its own unique theme and style. While all the games at that time used only either vertical or horizontal scrolling, the third story about Mario allowed him to fly and jump in any direction, including diagonally.
To once again evaluate how far the development for NES has gone by then, keep in mind this: the very first part of Super Mario Bros joke is included in SMB 3 as an embedded mini-game.
Watch the gameplay here .
Play Super Mario Bros 3 online here .
This is a rather eccentric game (which is worth at least an introductory video), where the gorilla rides a surfboard and skate through difficult locations for such activities. The first thing that catches your eye is that the game looks as if someone tried to shove Donkey Kong Country into a cartridge for the NES (later the Chinese pirates were trying to make it clumsily). Developers have created a lively and well animated environment.
The gameplay itself is rather unusual. The comparison of Thrilla's Surfari with any of the versions of Tony Hawk for the Gameboy Advance, only mixed with a traditional platformer, involuntarily suggests itself. Physics and tricks in the game, of course, are inferior to Tony Hawk, but given the age and the fact that the game is ultimately a platformer, they are good.
For example, depending on the speed and the vector of the fall of the hero, he can just fall, or scatter for parts, as after fatality in Mortal Kombat.
During the game, the speed of maneuvering increases. At the last levels, the NES even starts to mute slightly, but the speed does not suffer.
Watch the gameplay here .
Play Thrilla's Surfari online here .
Solar Jetman gameplay was considered old-school even in the days of the old-school NES, but the graphic part of the game was one of the most advanced efforts of Zippo Games and Rare. The basis of the steepness of this shooter lies in its excellent physics, like its predecessors - Thrust and Gravitar. The player's ship moves in a vacuum, so in order to stop, you need to apply acceleration in the opposite direction of motion. Since the ship in addition is constantly affected by the force of gravity, a quiet flight in the game is impossible, you need to maneuver carefully all the time.
Although physics in Solar Jetman is simply outstanding, character animation is not far behind. The design of sprites is relatively simple, but in dynamics they create a realistic illusion of rotation in three dimensions.
Watch the gameplay here .
Play Solar Jetman online here .
This Konami RPG was released only in Japan. Although the game did not become a model of good gameplay, it primarily pleases with its unique sound qualities. Lagrange Point is the only game using Konami's VRC7 sound chip that produces an unusually high-quality sound, roughly equivalent to Sega Megadrive / Genesis. Since the game came out at sunset of the era of 8-bit consoles, and in addition used advanced iron, no one undertook to localize it for Western countries.
We should mention the detailed animated videos accompanying the script of this RPG.
Watch the gameplay here .
Let's face it, the gameplay in this game is poor, but the developers are excused by the fact that they made it look good (comparable to the arcade original).
Since the NES could not give out a full-fledged video, as in the original, huge sprites were used in an attempt to make a similar impression. Although the goal was not fully achieved, the result is still surprisingly good for 8-bit NES hardware. The jumps look pretty baggy, but on the whole the character moves smoothly and pleasantly to the eye.
Watch the gameplay here .
Play Dragon's Lair online here .
First part.
The second part of.
')
Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse
Release Date: 1990
Technical features:
- In a large number of effects of rotation of objects
- Imitation perspective
- Additional sound channels thanks to Konami's VRC6 sound chip
What is so special about her?
In the third version of the gothic thriller Castlevania Konami, a very voluminous game and a pair of own-produced chips were loaded onto the cartridge. This allowed the game to show off beautiful visual effects like rotating objects and simulating perspectives. The graphics have also been reworked and can be called the best graphics for NES in general. Background decorations contain many animated tiles that fill the game with an ominous atmosphere. Some game scenes carry treacherous surprises: automatic scrolling, inbound water, crumbling bridges and crumbling towers will keep the player awake.Konami squeezed the maximum of graphic possibilities from the NES, allowing us to enjoy such nuances as mud-stained glass, moss on stones, eerie marsh fog, frightening shadows, rotten trees and spectacular flashes of light.
Here the game took a step forward compared with Castlevania 2, where the backgrounds often repeated each other. Enemies and bosses look much better than in the previous parts (although, there they were very good for their time). The animation has become much more beautiful, this time the developers did not manage, as usual, with one or two frames.The Famicom version (Family Computer — the Japanese version of NES), known as Akumajou Densetsu, used the additional audio channels provided by the VRC6 chip. Several other Konami games also use this chip, but Famicom alone can tap into its sound capabilities.
Watch the gameplay here .
Play Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse online here .
Blaster master
Year of release: 1988
Technical features:
- Cute tile background decorations
- Detailed explosions and animations
- Big rise bosses
What is so special about her?
The game looked fabulous and sounded for the time when it saw the light. The 16-bit systems then only took their first steps on the gaming market, and the best compliment that Blaster Master can award is that it looked almost like a 16-bit creation. Exploding enemies are very well developed, and the bosses at the end of the levels are your mammoths. The level of detail in the levels with the side view exceeded any other game of 8-bit generation.The developers of Sunsoft, like no other, were able to create tile decorations for any NES game. Blaster Master looks like 2 different games in one, thanks to a mixture of levels from side to side and then from above.
One gets the feeling that the character is being thrown into the world of Megamen, then into the world of Zelda. The music, by the way, is also decent, although Blaster Master is inferior in this respect to many games, at least to the same Megaman.Watch the gameplay here .
Play Blaster Master online here .
Crystalis
Year of release: 1990
Technical features:
- Creative approach to working with color
- Detailed scenery
What is so special about her?
SNK is mainly known for its fighting games and the Metal Slug game. But surprisingly, one of the company's first successes was an RPG for NES, which competed with Zelda in terms of gameplay and technical implementation.Despite its excellent quality, Crystalis has not gained mass popularity, although today it is considered a cult classic among NES fans. Already at that early time, SNK mastered the capabilities of the console in full, and created colorful games that are appreciated not only for beauty, but also for exciting gameplay.
Sprites in the game are well detailed, although relatively small according to the laws of the genre. The animation along the adventure is so good that even The Legend of Zelda looks a bit outdated against its background. In general, the visual environment in the game looks more natural than one would expect from playing on the NES.
Watch the gameplay here .
Play Crystalis online here .
Little samson
Year of release: 1991
Technical features:
- Smooth character animation
- Strikingly detailed and colorful decorations
What is so special about her?
This fun game with a touch of madness was underestimated by the general public. Like many of the later NES games, Little Samson boasts eye-catching graphics and smooth animation. The sprites of the characters themselves are not very impressive, but when the characters move, it becomes clear that the developer worked primarily on the ease of their work, rather than photographic image quality.But the background scenery features colorful and detailed study. This more than compensates for the not-too-refined character sprites.
Taito keeps the frame rate and sprite refresh rate under control, which is very important for some zabubenny skirmishes.
Watch the gameplay here .
Play Little Samson online here .
Prince of Persia
Year of release: 1992
Technical features:
- Very large sprites
- Smooth animation
- Detailed animated backgrounds
What is so special about her?
Prince of Persia was a revolutionary game when it was released for the Apple II in 1989, but its realistic graphics remained a technical phenomenon at the time of the release of its port for NES. The transferred game looks very similar to the original, but in some locations scrolling is used, since they do not fit entirely on the screen. Nevertheless, the shiver takes from the spectacle of this classic, perfectly working on the old woman NES.Watch the gameplay here .
Play Prince of Persia online here .
Slalom
Year of release: 1987
Technical features:
- The first game for NES, allowing you to play together on a split screen.
- Amazing sense of speed
- Very smooth animation
- One of the first attempts to imitate 3-D
What is so special about her?
The action of the most advanced racing game on the NES takes place, oddly enough, not on the roadway, but on the snow. Slalom is another of the early NES games that expanded the minds of players and developers. It was released in 1987, and became the first Rare game published for the NES. This was the beginning of a long and fruitful cooperation.The main key to the successful gameplay in the game was its snow scenery. By simply placing the moving white stripes in the gray area of ​​the roadside, the Rare programmers achieved incredibly natural and speedy gameplay.
Add to this the unevenness of the slope, flagpoles, snowmen, some guys on a sledge and endlessly tearing through other slalomists, and we get pretty tense pokatushki at the output. Although the game uses roughly the same development methods as in other pseudo-3d races of that day, there was practically no such feeling of speed anywhere else as in Slalom.
In addition, it was the first game for the NES, using a split screen for the game together, which in itself was a big step forward.
Watch the gameplay here .
Play Slalom online here .
3-D World Runner
Year of release: 1988
Technical features:
- realistic pseudo-3d
- Real 3D video mode (requires 3-d points).
What is so special about her?
Looking at the 3-D World Runner gameplay, Sega Megardrive / Genesis fans will note its similarity to Space Harrier. Graphic style and technology are very similar, but here the player is not given to fly - you can only run. Nevertheless, the effects of pseudo-3D are excellent, given that they are made on the NES platform, and were developed in 1987.But it highlights the game more. It has a 3d-video mode that requires the presence of red and blue 3d-glasses. The mode is activated by pressing the "SELECT", and this detail allows the game to far outpace all competitors in the genre.
Watch the gameplay here .
Play 3-D World Runner online here .
Cosmic Epsilon
Year of release: 1989
Technical features:
- replays the great and terrible Space Harrier (NES version) on its own field.
- pseudo-3d graphics with nice looking skirmishes graphics
- smooth animation
- beautiful animated videos
What is so special about her?
A year after the release of 3D World Runner, a new game called Cosmic Epsilon raised the bar in developing games of its genre. With its release, a clone of Space Harrier for the NES was finally moved from the position of the leader of the genre.I must say that the colors were not as lively as in the 3D World Runner, nor was the scenery worked out in detail. But the game allowed to fly and engage with enemies in a shootout, and to do it beautifully and effectively.
To add brilliance, several beautiful animated videos were added to the game.
Watch the gameplay here .
Play Cosmic Epsilon online here .
Moon crystal
Year of release: 1992
Technical features:
- detailed and smooth character animation
- impressive rollers in anime style
What is so special about her?
In 1992, a year has passed since the release of Super Nintendo, but this did not stop some developers who want to create games for the ever-young NES. Of course, by that time, most of them had already smelled gunpowder in igode making under Nintendo. Many were able to squeeze every last bit to make their games not look like a dismal shame against the background of the newest 16-bit shares.Moon Crystal is a horizontal scrolling platformer that stands out for its exquisitely smooth animation. Of course, it does not reach the Prince of Persia rotoscopic animation in this respect, but it still leaves most of the 8-bit platformers far behind. The game also boasts anime-style videos, as if taken from Turbografx-16 games. It is clear that there is a fairly simple animation, but this was not typical of NES games.
Watch the gameplay here .
Play Moon Crystal online here .
Super Mario Bros 3
Release Date: 1988
Technical features:
- powerful palette
- detailed sprites
- diagonal scrolling
What is so special about her?
Released in 1988 (this is in Japan, in 1989 for the USA), the third part of the cult series for several generations forced us to reconsider ideas about the limitations of NES. It seems that the design engineers at Nintendo did not even realize that it would be possible to create something similar on their console. The game just gushes in both colors and a graphical setting, and in the process sets for the platformers, and for all NES games in general, an incredibly high level with its depth and scope. The game did not leave indifferent, probably, not a single gamer, as she was so stunningly good for the date of her debut. In the USA in 1989, SMB3 even penetrated the script of the film “The Wizard”, and became one of the key elements there. A great many game levels are scattered throughout the eight worlds of the game, each of which has its own unique theme and style. While all the games at that time used only either vertical or horizontal scrolling, the third story about Mario allowed him to fly and jump in any direction, including diagonally.To once again evaluate how far the development for NES has gone by then, keep in mind this: the very first part of Super Mario Bros joke is included in SMB 3 as an embedded mini-game.
Watch the gameplay here .
Play Super Mario Bros 3 online here .
Thrilla's surfari
Release Date: 1992
Technical features:
- realistic physics
- bright colors and believable shadows
- fast gameplay with a lot of obstacles without brakes
- exploding monkeys
What is so special about her?
This is a rather eccentric game (which is worth at least an introductory video), where the gorilla rides a surfboard and skate through difficult locations for such activities. The first thing that catches your eye is that the game looks as if someone tried to shove Donkey Kong Country into a cartridge for the NES (later the Chinese pirates were trying to make it clumsily). Developers have created a lively and well animated environment.The gameplay itself is rather unusual. The comparison of Thrilla's Surfari with any of the versions of Tony Hawk for the Gameboy Advance, only mixed with a traditional platformer, involuntarily suggests itself. Physics and tricks in the game, of course, are inferior to Tony Hawk, but given the age and the fact that the game is ultimately a platformer, they are good.
For example, depending on the speed and the vector of the fall of the hero, he can just fall, or scatter for parts, as after fatality in Mortal Kombat.
During the game, the speed of maneuvering increases. At the last levels, the NES even starts to mute slightly, but the speed does not suffer.
Watch the gameplay here .
Play Thrilla's Surfari online here .
Solar jetman
Year of release: 1990
Technical features:
- very plausible physics
- smooth animation
- pseudo 3-d rotation
- detailed study of video sequences
What is so special about her?
Solar Jetman gameplay was considered old-school even in the days of the old-school NES, but the graphic part of the game was one of the most advanced efforts of Zippo Games and Rare. The basis of the steepness of this shooter lies in its excellent physics, like its predecessors - Thrust and Gravitar. The player's ship moves in a vacuum, so in order to stop, you need to apply acceleration in the opposite direction of motion. Since the ship in addition is constantly affected by the force of gravity, a quiet flight in the game is impossible, you need to maneuver carefully all the time.Although physics in Solar Jetman is simply outstanding, character animation is not far behind. The design of sprites is relatively simple, but in dynamics they create a realistic illusion of rotation in three dimensions.
Watch the gameplay here .
Play Solar Jetman online here .
Lagrange point
Release Date: 1991
Technical features:
- uses Konami's VRC7 sound chip
- sound quality is comparable to games for Sega Megadrive / Genesis
- beautiful animated videos
What is so special about her?
This Konami RPG was released only in Japan. Although the game did not become a model of good gameplay, it primarily pleases with its unique sound qualities. Lagrange Point is the only game using Konami's VRC7 sound chip that produces an unusually high-quality sound, roughly equivalent to Sega Megadrive / Genesis. Since the game came out at sunset of the era of 8-bit consoles, and in addition used advanced iron, no one undertook to localize it for Western countries.We should mention the detailed animated videos accompanying the script of this RPG.
Watch the gameplay here .
Dragon's lair
Release Date: 1990
Technical features:
- very big sprites
- smooth animation
- detailed animated scenery
What is so special about her?
Let's face it, the gameplay in this game is poor, but the developers are excused by the fact that they made it look good (comparable to the arcade original).Since the NES could not give out a full-fledged video, as in the original, huge sprites were used in an attempt to make a similar impression. Although the goal was not fully achieved, the result is still surprisingly good for 8-bit NES hardware. The jumps look pretty baggy, but on the whole the character moves smoothly and pleasantly to the eye.
Watch the gameplay here .
Play Dragon's Lair online here .
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/132721/
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